Brick Street South Poetry Series is organized by JL Kato. The series features a poet and an open mic the third Wednesday of every month. May features poet, Joan Colby.

Joan Colby has published widely in journals such as Poetry, Atlanta Review, South Dakota Review, The Spoon River Poetry Review, New York Quarterly, the new renaissance, Grand Street, Epoch, and Prairie Schooner. Awards include two Illinois Arts Council Literary Awards, Rhino Poetry Award, the new renaissance Award for Poetry, and an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in Literature. She was a finalist in the GSU Poetry Contest (2007) and Nimrod International Pablo Neruda Prize (2009, 2012) and received honorable mentions in the North American Review’s James Hearst Poetry Contest (2008, 2010). She is the editor of Illinois Racing News and lives on a small horse farm in Northern Illinois. Her published books include The Lonely Hearts Killers and The Atrocity Book.